The Lockdown Plays: Theatre podcast raising money for St Mungos to include short plays by Caryl Churchill and Inua Ellams

Caryl Churchill, Inua Ellams and Simon Stephens are contributing pieces to the podcast
Getty Images
Zoe Paskett14 April 2020

Caryl Churchill, Inua Ellams, Simon Stephens and Rachel De-lahay will be contributing plays for a new theatre podcast.

The Lockdown Plays will feature either a brand new work or an existing piece contributed especially for the podcast each episode and will raise funds for St Mungo’s homeless charity.

Released today, the first episode sees Patsy Ferran and Sule Rimi read Cordelia Lynn’s Fragments, with Kate O’Flynn and Shane Zaza performing Stephens’ The Gap next week.

Robert Alan Evans, Luke Barnes, Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti and Athena Stephens are also writing new plays for the podcast, with actors such as Lydia Wilson, Jasmine Lee-Jones, Anjli Mohindra, Fiona Button and Paul Hilton lined up to read.

Created by Tom Mothersdale, Wilf Scolding and Anoushka Warden, The Lockdown Plays will be released every Tuesday for the next ten weeks on Acast.

Mothersdale, who presents the podcast with fellow actor Scolding, said: “When the virus hit, the industry slammed shut. Overnight film and television shutdown, theatres closed, radio projects were cancelled. Actors, directors, ushers, writers, crew, stage management effectively became unemployed with no income whatsoever and no idea of when the next job was going to come. It’s the biggest crisis we’ve seen.

But there are vulnerable people out there who need our help and support more than ever. The homeless can’t self-isolate in the same way as most of us. People who are homeless are hit especially hard by the coronavirus outbreak. You can’t protect yourself from a virus when you’re living on the street. Rough sleepers need support as a matter of urgency. As do the homeless services who support them.”

All funds raised will go straight to St Mungo’s.

The first episode, Cordelia Lynn Fragments, is available here. You can donate to the fundraiser at justgiving.com/fundraising/thelockdownplays

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT